A Universal Haunting
by genies
Summary: With Earth destroyed in the Giant War, and Rachel's soul left stranded in the void, she's sent a-haunting to different planets and parallel universes until her soul can find a place to rest. There's only one thing she knows, and it's that she's going to have an adventure. (Slightly!cracky. Updated every Friday.)


Twelve years and fifteen days ago, I was murdered by a man who wanted me to work at his McDonald's. Sounds improbable, yeah?

That's what I thought when I first woke up after dying. First I thought, "Oh god, it's a Monday."

And then an actual transparent person flew over to me, patted my cheek (or as close to patting two ghosts can get), and said, "I know this may be a shock, but you're dead."

I think I may have tried to punch her after she said that, but it was impossible since my hand went right through her. That's a perk of being a ghost - no more bruised hips from walking into tables.

As I looked up from where I was seated, I saw a billion, or a trillion, or whatever number comes after that, stars hanging above my face. I reached out to touch one, and my fingers went right through it.

"Are these the stars of the galaxy?" I asked, turning to my new guide. "Is this heaven? I've never lucid dreamed before."

"I'm sorry, darling, this isn't heaven. I don't know if heaven exists. We're just two ghosts in the expanse of nothing and everything. I tend to break in the newcomers, since I have an affinity with sensing new presences. You can imagine it's a tough job since so many people are dying. But I suppose not many people become ghosts, so it's not as hard as it sounds. My name's Martha. What's yours?"

"Okay, that's it, I'm waking up now." I sighed and willed my eyes to open.

Martha seemed to deal with this kind of reaction a bunch, for she was taking everything with a surprising lot of patience. "Do you remember anything from before I woke up?"

I stopped stretching my eyes as far as they could open and turned to her. "Yeah, my name's Rachel Dare. And I was having this odd dream about..."

"Being stabbed?"

"How'd you know?"

"Your stomach has a gaping hole."

"Oh, lovely." I looked down at my shirt, which was flapping in what definitely wasn't the wind. I covered it my navel with my hands. "Tell me something I don't know so I can test if you're real. Maybe try to explain derivatives to me."

"I never got a calculus education but I can tell you that that's your planet over there." She pointed to a tiny piece of dust in the distance. "Earth."

I was beginning to come to terms with my situation; I had seen weirder things before. Being a mortal suddenly thrust into a world of demigods sometimes does that to you.

"Why aren't I in the underworld?" I asked. Maybe the war hadn't been resolved and this was the waiting room until the Underworld was back in business.

"You might be in a little bit," she said. "But you need to float out here for now."

"Why?"

"Gods are man made, and without man, they have no power."

My eyes widened as I realized what she was saying. "You mean everybody's dead?" I thought back to the battle scene that surrounded me, tidal waves coming from the east, and a splitting earth in the west.

"That's what I heard."

"Well. What's next?" If ghosts could faint, I probably would have. "If everybody's dead, then why aren't they here?"

"Okay, one question at a time. You need to find a place to haunt. And they are, but we're in a place that never ends, so they could be anywhere."

"Well, I'll just wait here for someone to find me."

"Sorry, no can do."

And then I was being whisked into a different dimension.

"Which universe and planet would you like to haunt?"

"Oh my Gods." I staggered around, floated unsteadily, rather. That space time warp was unsettling.

"I don't believe that there's a planet with that name."

"Okay, I'd like to haunt earth." I figured if I could go back, maybe I'd be able to figure out what happened to everything.

"Sorry, Earth in this universe is destroyed. Not very hauntable."

"Um, okay. I'll choose that one then." I pointed to a speck in the distance. It seemed to look a lot like planet earth. Maybe Percy and the others had landed there.

"Just beware, you have to stay there until you're exorcized."

Okay, I thought. If I need to leave I'll just have to do some quality haunting.

Then suddenly every part of my body was being squeezed into what felt like a tube and I was being sucked at full speed, the only words echoing after me being "good luck" from Martha.

* * *

 **A/N:** This will be a cross-over multichap, chronicling Rachel's adventures as she haunts different worlds in alternate universes, which will basically be different canons. I haven't decided which fandom to visit next. Leave a comment if you have any suggestions, and thanks for reading!


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